I came very, very close to being done in by a fraud on ebay. My undying want of a digital SLR camera was nearly the undoing of me, and I couldn’t see the forest for the trees. Luckily I stopped any transactions that could have gone through to this guy but what is left are some interesting e-mails between him and some of the other potential buyers on Ebay I have been corresponding with. Here is one such e-mail thread: ...
Freaking hell, I remember the ads with that stupid Pelican. Slip on a shirt, slop on some sunscreen and slap on a hat. Do you think I paid any attention to that at all? No! I didn’t wear sunscreen, or a hat, or a shirt when I was at the waterparks on the weekend. My back and shoulders are the most burnt I think they’ve ever been. I am an idiot. I deserve this. Thank *God* for Aloe Vera gel though. ...
I went to Disneyworld on the weekend with a few friends, and “this is insane!” was pretty much the only comment that was ever coming out of my mouth. I have to say, we absolutely fluked the whole weekend. I don’t think we could have planned it better. There were the hugest thunderstorms I’ve ever seen each afternoon, but if you waited through them you pretty much could go on any ride with little waiting time. Awesome. ...
I went to a Jamaican diner today for lunch. The whole place probably wouldn’t have been more than say 7x10 metres in size. It was very, very simple but I liked it. The thing I found appealing about it initially were the speakers they had that made up some sort of divider. No kidding, there were 2 massive speaker cabinets with *at least* an 18-inch driver in each of them, plus another 4 speaker cabinets that had a couple of 12-inch drivers per cabinet. They must have some bloody massive Rastafarian parties there! The place doubled as a small (very small) convenience store, and I saw that up on a shelf next to the ovaltine and other crappy substitutes for milo was, in fact, a few tins of milo itself. The heavens opened, choirs sang, so I bought some. I’m the happiest Aussie alive I reckon. *tear.
I was waiting on some pictures from somebody else’s camera before writing this update, but due to technical difficulties, that’ll have to wait! Friday night I didn’t have anything planned. I was sitting home, absolutely buggered from the week and I nearly went to bed. Note that I said nearly. There is a switch in my brain that comes into effect on the start of the weekend. It says “Don’t stay home on a Friday or Saturday night by yourself you friggin loser or I’ll give you nightmares and make your sleep general hell”. I payed heed to that switch, so I called up some friends and met them at Delray Beach. It’s half-way to Palm Beach and I found it was a pretty nice place to go to. Beers were a flowing everywhere when I arrived at the pub, so I joined in. A couple of hours later we moved on to somewhere else and I had a couple of Jagermeisters. That’s because they didn’t have any Absinthe (it’s prohibited) or Chartreuse. So after all that I couldn’t drive anywhere and I had to get a lift back to my apartment, which was ok since the people I was out with were staying in a hotel not far from me. The problem is I had parked my car next to the beach in a pay-zone, and I was worried I would get a fine the next day… ...
This is all a bit surreal as I write this, but Saturday night (at line dancing of all places) I was asked if I wanted to try out for a pilot of a reality show. I thought I may as well check it out first and so I called up the production company involved. The deal is a printing company who were funding/creating the show were looking to cast a white, single, heterosexual male. They couldn’t tell me much more than that because of the non-disclosure agreement. The thing is I couldn’t take the opportunity due to the Visa conditions that I’m over here on. Bugger, eh? ...
Fort Lauderdale - the return. This time around I spent a bit more time actually walking around and enjoying the sights rather than trying to find some place at some address that was completely wrong. I had lunch at some European cafe and they actually had a pretty decent margarita pizza (or margharita - I see it spelt every possible way under the sun) - booya! I didn’t think I was going to be able to eat all of it, but my stomach thought otherwise. There was also a pretty good jazz band playing next door that provided a nice backdrop. The cars going past this place were all class - BMW, Mercedes, Jaguar, Porsche, Corvettes, and nothing like the equivalent of a Commondore or Falcoon. ...
This entry is coming in late - mostly because I’ve been busy as heck at work and I’m just plain buggered. I spent most of Saturday recovering from the previous night since I only ended up getting home at 4:30am or something like that. Saturday night I didn’t have anything planned - but that didn’t particularly worry me at 2pm in the afternoon. At 8pm however, I was starting to get worried so I called Chet the player to see what he was up to. He was at this place called “Roundup” - a country themed bar out west of where I live. I was told there were lots of guys wearing cowboy hats but hey, I wanted to meet some new people so I didn’t really hesitate. Chet the player hadn’t been there before either so it was all new for him too. ...
Wowsers, I think I just had the hugest weekend in a while - my first real weekend in the United States. I’m going to have to break it into several posts I think. I made it into work this morning, so that’s a good start I guess.
Friday night I was due to hook up with a few people from work at a place called the Baja Beach Club. Here was the invite I received: Baja Beach Club, Riverfront. Upstairs, just past the movie theater. 3 for 1 from 6-10, with full dinner buffet. Come on out, and bring anyone you can. I hadn’t been to Fort Lauderdale yet, but this sounded as good an excuse as any to go. Because I was uber prepared, I decided to do a quick internet search to find out where this place was, just in case. No problemo, I had an address and I said I’d try to arrive at around 8pm. ...